Psalm heading - See Psalm 62 for Jeduthun. This psalm heading is unique because it says "through (or for) Jeduthun" rather than "upon Jeduthun". I think it means that Jeduthun and David collaborated on this psalm. Probably the experience is David's. Jeduthun made it into a psalm, and David edited it.

v1 - If you do not guard your ways, you will not be able to control your tongue. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34; Luke 6:45).

If someone is yelling at you and calling you names, it is easy to return in kind without intending to. So it is better to be quiet. When a person is yelling at you, he is in fight mode, and does not have the ability to listen or reason.

This psalm seems to be when David was verbally abused by Shimei when David was fleeing from his son Absalom (2Sam 16:5-13).

v5 - My existence is so minute compared to the universe and eternity. The same is true for all human beings.

This short psalm uses the Hebrew word ach, meaning "surely" 4 times. This may be a characteristic of Jeduthun, because Psalm 62, which is "upon Jeduthun" uses that word 6 times. But Psalm 77 which is "upon Jeduthun through Asaph" does not use ach.

Many young folk looked at the lives of their parents and said, "They have no meaning." - J. Veron MGee

v6- They are vain because they have not considered their life relative to eternity and God. Even religious people do their works to be seen by men, having their reward in the present. (Mat 6:1-2, 5, 16; 23:5)

Others accumulate much more wealth than they need, not considering that they should be rich toward God. (Luke 12:20-21)

Think of the Christians who gather fortunes down here and leave it for godless offspring, or they leave it to unworthy so-called Christian work. - J. Vernon McGee

v12 - lit. For a stranger I am with you, a sojourner like all my fathers.

At Absalom's rebellion, David had to flee Israel and live in the wilderness (2Sam 15:14,23,28).

David's prayer for the temple and his son Solomon, near the end of his life, expresses this same thought with a humility that is uniquely David's (1Chron 29:10-19). I will memorize this prayer to cultivate the humble attitude that David had, which I don't have.

At best we are pilgrims and strangers on earth, and that is the way we ought to live our lives. - J. Vernon McGee

David had just said, Give ear to my cry. Pay attention to me. Next he says, Be blind to me. These 2 are not contradictory. Hear my prayer, but don't look upon me because of my sin, which is what he said in Ps 51:9 when the prophet Nathan exposed David's terrible sin. Look at my Savior, Christ in my stead.

When David says 'I will be no more' it does not mean that he thought he would no longer exist, but that he would not be in the land of the living. The same phrase is used of Enoch when he was raptured (Gen 5:24).